MRAVNÁ VÝCHOVA V ŠKOLÁCH NA SLOVENSKU A V ZAHRANI ČÍ

1.1. Aims and contents of ethical education project 1
Within the concept of ethical education ethical and moral issues are only a partial component of
education, like religion or economy. They have no basic and decisive role, as it is claimed by Lencz
(1997, s. 476). 2 The core of the moral education concept should be the best experience from the
existing moral development of mankind included in the heritage of historical development of ethical
thinking in the world. Philosophy and ethics have within the ethical education concept only
supplementary character to the psychology-based educational programme that is derived from a
problematic division of social and moral practice (and above all of human behaviour) into egoistic and
pro-social. The whole concept is about “...whether we retreat within ourselves and our egoism or open
our hearts and doors to others. In other words: whether we adopt the pro-social attitude or stay egoists”
(Lencz et al., 1994, s. 15).
Ján Grác draws attention, on the basis of empiric research, to the danger that follows uncritical
emphasis of pro-sociality, as pro-social behaviour and acting do not necessarily mean moral behaviour
and on the contrary antisocial acting is not necessarily immoral. One of the examples he uses is
cheating at school (Grác, 2006, s. 58 – 59; 2008, s. 221). He reached serious conclusions concerning
pro-social education performed in Slovakia in form of ethical education. The outcomes of the survey
of the secondary school students in Slovakia notify missing (or deficient) development of ethical
thinking, or reasoning within our educational system. In my opinion, the fact that senior students
found moral reasoning and thinking in complicated and contradictory contexts of everyday life
difficult is an important finding of this research. According to Grác, ethical (in my opinion, more
likely moral) thinking can only be formed on the basis of certain knowledge, in this case knowledge of
moral standards. Relating also to other authors he points out that even teachers of ethical education,
not only pupils and students, find cognitive processing of moral values difficult. Communication
without being aware of the importance of values and standards is one-sidedly preferred (Grác, 2005, s.
244 – 256; 2006, s. 66 – 67; 2008, s. 246 – 248). Similarly, Jonathan Baron claims that majority of
what is called immoral behaviour is the result of thoughtlessness, decline in thinking about
consequences and relevant moral principles or non-reflexive engagement in relation to problematic
ideologies. In reality it means absence of the ability of moral reasoning and thinking (Baron, 1990, s.
77).
In my opinion, at least two conclusions can be drawn of this: I am convinced that graduates of the
five-year Master´s studies who are well-oriented in the issues of ethics and moral should be primarily
preferred in teaching of ethical education. Especially teachers at secondary schools have to be wellprepared
in the areas of applied ethics (bioethics, medical ethics, economic ethics, environmental
ethics etc.) because that becomes the centre of attention in terms of contemporary ethics as the modern
era brings more and more ethical and moral issues from all areas of life. Only the teachers who are
well-educated in theory of all these areas can lead discussion and direct young people in this
discussion, can help with formation of their moral attitudes. Knowing the contents of retraining
courses organized by Methodological Centres, their graduates are not prepared for this task.
Unfortunately, in many cases the same can be said about the university courses of ethics preparing
future teachers of ethical education at various faculties in Slovakia. 3 That is why more attention should
1 I dealt with the analysis of the ethical education contents in the past (Gluchman, 1996b, s. 415-424; 1999b, s.
266-272), thus I will mention here only some of the most substantial comments.
2 Like Miron Zelina, Ján Grác also observes that Olivar´s concept almost lacks the issue of a moral standard,
which is the basis of all moral and thus also of moral education. According to Grác social standards, described
by Roche Olivar, cannot be identified with moral standards (Grác, 2008, s. 246-247). On the basis of this, Grác
comes to a very serious conclusion concerning the issue of ethical education. He claims that “so it happens that
when we promote pro-social behaviour, we do not always promote moral behaviour” (Grác, 2006, s. 67).
3 This statement can be supported by the study programme of ethics – English language at the Faculty of Science
at University of Žilina. Out of 60 subjects attended during the 1. year of the studies 10 subjects were on Ethics, 4
subjects on Philosophy and 26 subjects on English. It means that Ethics constituted only 16.7% of the overall
studies contents and together with Philosophy it was 23.3% in comparison of 43.3% of subjects on English
language and literature.
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